Tomorrow, Obama will hold his first full-fledged news conference in nearly a year!! Why would the President of the United States decline for an entire year to hold a full fledged news conference?

There is marching in the streets! lol

For all his charisma, Obama does not do well when he goes off script. He only has limited control of the questions he will get at a news conference. He can’t practice his speech and read it off a teleprompter.

Because he is a Socialist Nazi Illegal Alien with Secret Agenda to kill your grandma after he fucks her and makes her have a late-term abortion?

Or because he is a middle-of-the-road Chicago politician who is dealing with a political opposition whose strategy is to stymie him at every turn regardless of whether they agree with his policies, and there is an angry minority of Southern white men who are crypto-racist and can’t tolerate the fact that the white majority is demographically on its way out?

Hmmm, which could it be?

@dpworkin My goodness. You are such an angry man…:(

And you are deficient as an analyst of my motivations.

@dpworkin I am? Sorry

@dpworkin Excellent post!

@Ltryptophan LOL, True.
@dpworkin I kind of vote for number 2. I like Obama better but Hillary would’ve been all over this even if people where clawing at her.
@plethora Lets face it. This country is still pretty much ruled by money. Money talks bullshit walks. BP is huge money for this country and few people want to rock that boat. They say jump and politicians everywhere jump. In case you haven’t noticed many politians aren’t trying to hang Obama either. If they go against BP loudly than where will their campaign money come from? BP won’t be the only company to drop them and move on to backing the politicians who kept their mouths shut.

@dpworkin

CIA World Factbook on ethnicity in these United States… As of this present moment. AKA NOW!

White Men cannot be singled out to there geographic ordinate area in our country whether you like to think so or not. Noone would dare say the southern black man thinks x….would they now.

White males are the majority, in this country. Unbiggoted, unvulgarized f a c t

white 79.96%, black 12.85%, Asian 4.43%, Amerindian and Alaska native 0.97%, native Hawaiian and other Pacific islander 0.18%, two or more races 1.61% (July 2007 estimate)
note: a separate listing for Hispanic is not included because the US Census Bureau considers Hispanic to mean persons of Spanish/Hispanic/Latino origin including those of Mexican, Cuban, Puerto Rican, Dominican Republic, Spanish, and Central or South American origin living in the US who may be of any race or ethnic group (white, black, Asian, etc.); about 15.1% of the total US population is Hispanic

@Ltryptophan I think your white stat might include white Hispanics, and those white southerners @dpworkin is talking about don’t consider white Hispanics White. Last I looked minorities make up around 35% of the US population and growing every day. I’ll try to find the stats I have seen recently.

And, about the OP’s original question. The way I remember it Obama was accused of talking to much if I remember correctly, too much “exposure” I think tehy were calling it when he first got in. I guess maybe he did not want to be accused of that.

@Ltryptophan Here you go:

White Americans (non-Hispanic/Latino and Hispanic/Latino) are the racial majority, with an 80% share of the U.S. population, per official estimates from the Population Estimates Program (PEP),[4] or 75% per the American Community Survey (ACS).[6] Hispanic and Latino Americans compose 15% of the population.[5] Black Americans are the largest racial minority, composing nearly 13% of the population.[4][6] The White, not-Hispanic or Latino population comprises 66% of the nation’s total.[5]

Source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_and_ethnicity_in_the_United_States

@Ltryptophan How does a person read the phrase “on the way out” as “out”?

It seems he prefers 1:1 interviews over formal press conferences. One white house correspondent states he has sat for 190 interviews, far more than most presidencies have done by this point in their term (source: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20006076-503544.html) Do you remember his question and answer session with House Republicans? How about his fox interview?

This is where I wish I was a historian. I only started to pay attention to politics during George W’s years. What I have appreciated with Obama is his willingness to sit under scruinity by his opponents for extended periods of time. Something I never saw from Bush. I have also found his communication with the public to be quite extensive. Does anybody know how his body of communication with the public compares with previous presidencies?

I think that of the many lessons I would have to give you to answer sufficiently and indepth, the first would have to be how to have a chaste tongue. You are no proctor of mine.

Unsurprisingly, there is no concept here of what political science even means. If one goes to a farm there are many cows, and few cowboys. Yet the cows do graze where they ought.

@Ltryptophan I think you are finally entirely around the bend. That post made no sense at all. Even had you spelled “proctor” correctly, it is still complete spaghetti logic.

Typographical errors won’t save you. Nor, did I get into any logic. A simple fact is what I stated. You don’t like facts, I’m sure of it.

But I’ll chop at the root. I mean, let me be clear ha, crystal since you don’t like spaghetti westerns, the current Commander in Chief is failing. He won’t hold a news conference because you can be quiet and be called a fool, or open your mouth and have it proven. Maybe if you like this fella’ so much you could follow his example.

Thanks, Sam.

If he doesn’t hold a news conference, he’s secretive and afraid.
If he does hold a news conference, he’s grandstanding and covering up.
If he doesn’t take over the BP situation, it’s because he’s paid by Big Oil.
If he takes over the BP situation, it’s OMG Socialism bailout!
If he eats chocolate ice cream, he’s a racist.
If he eats vanilla, he’s trying to be too white.
If he eats strawberry ice cream, he’s a Pinko Communist.

There is a certain segment of the population that Obama will never, ever, please. No matter what he does or doesn’t do, there will be something wrong with it, even if they have to stand on one foot and squint into the sun to see it. I think this is one of those times.

I’d like to think that he is just trying to do his gorram job, because he will never be able to please those people, so why should he bother trying?

Also: I wouldn’t count it being “almost a year” since February 9, 2010. Even if you don’t count that press conference as a press conference (it was, to be fair, pretty short), if you…

”...add up all the press availabilities Mr. Obama has done, including abbreviated sessions with foreign leaders, and some solo news conferences at home and abroad, and the number of press events he’s done since taking office climbs to 49.

During the same period of time in his presidency, George W. Bush took part in a total of 33 press availabilities of all varieties of which five were formal, solo White House news conferences. Only one was an evening event in prime time. The others were daytime sessions lasting about half an hour.

Besides press conferences, Mr. Obama has also sat for 190 interviews with members of the press, far more than any of his recent predecessors during their first 16 months in office.” Link

I suppose this will make people sad who like to trash on Obama for a lack of press appearances. Perhaps next they will grumble that he does too many of them.

This does bring to mind one question. What do people expect the government to do exactly about the oil spill? Unfortunately I don’t think anyone has a real 100% solution to the problem yet. You can keep cleaning things up and sue the pants off of BP but nothing will even get remotely better till a real solution arrives for stopping the leak. Maybe he’s saving saying anything till there is a possible solution. Right now they are trying pushing mud down the hole. I guess what I’m saying is it would be like the president of a hospital coming to a patient and telling him he has cancer and then he proceeds to say what treatments will cost without talking to the doctor first and finding out if its even curable at the moment.
So best to stay shut till you know all the facts and how everything is going to play out. I know what I want to hear is that there is a definte solution to this problem and that they stopped the leak. Not maybes.

@plethora, your question is BS. Obama has held plenty of news conferences.

http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/news_conferences.php

Why don’t you check out whether your questions are based in fact before you post them. Thanks.

By the way, anyone conservatives bitching about the lack of Obama press conferences might want to check out my link for how many press conferences Saint Ronald Reagan gave during his august tenure.

Hint: it’s a lot less per year than Obama

@laureth ROLMAO! Thank you, thank you, thank you. I couldn’t have said it better myself. Bet if some could they would even say the way he craps is all wrong. Craps too little its because hes full of it, craps too much, well he’s just covered in it. Never mind everyone in the world takes a crap. His carries extra meaning.

@Qingu just one thing, Reagan did not promise a transparent administration.

@WestRiverrat what on earth is your point.

Reagan didn’t promise a transparent administration… and gave few press conferences.

Obama promsied a transparent administration and has given a lot of press conferences.

Though, of course, press conferences have little to do with transparency. What bothers me is the sheer disconnect from reality that this criticism is based on. And people’s willingness to blithely repeat absolute bullshit without even taking 2 minutes to actually check if it’s true.

Where did you get the idea that he hasn’t been giving news conferences? It seems pretty clear from the links others have posted that it’s just not true.

@augustlan He made it up.

@Qingu Try reading the question carefully. Note the term “full-fledged”...meaning wide open to the entire press corp. Also note your link which shows numerous narrow focus conferences with other leaders during which questions from the press corps were very very limited…as in less than 6 from the press corp.

There was marching in the Streets, in Kabul and Baghdad mostly :)

There should be a Prime Ministers Questions-type Q&A with Obama (and all Presidents, House & Senate Speakers).

But American politicians are wimps.

And they think they need to hide things.

I worded the question in a way that it could go in almost any direction and have given little input myself because I wanted to see where Fluther took it. it went exactly where I thought it would go…..right down Liberal lane.

One thing about Fluther,,,you guys are unerringly predictable.

Party loyalists are intellectual and spiritual losers, @plethora. On both sides.

Because he has been busy working. Unlike our previous president who could not afford to leave things to question our current president is actually working! He has been busy trying to make things change.
I am not a fan of Obama however he is at least trying. It will be interesting to hear what he has to say.

@plethora Would he appear any better if he was like Palin? Giving full press conferences every 5 minutes and spilling her guts like a gutted pig about everything she doesn’t know?
Also I think it also has a bit to do with the underdog feeling. He has had too withstand a ton of criticism since he was elected for things he did not cause. He is taking on a very nasty term that was left to him by Bush.
Most people can’t help but feel if he was anything but a black man that the blame would’ve layed where it belong and praises would’ve gone out to the current president. Unless it was Hillary. As I stated before. What do people expect him to do. He is a president but still just a man. He’s not a magic genie, rub his lamp 3 times and ask that the gulf problem be resolved. He’s not even an oil engineer or scientist. He can only put it out there that this is a desperate situation and that we are in need of a great idea. The rest depends on someone else to solve.
Btw, is it really liberal to see facts as facts? Do you have to be liberal for that?

@plethora – I try to go down “fact based” lane. If that is currently “liberal,” so be it. Rest assured that when the conservative types become more reality-based than the liberals, I’ll be on that like white on rice.

@laureth I’m with you. Lets go have a liberal party. Actually I am probably more conservative in my views but I tend to go with facts even if it is against my personal feelings.
For example. If I’m a juror and the case involves a very promiscuous female charging a guy for rape. She has proven her alligations. I may not like that she was promiscuous however it would not give someone else the right to assualt her in any way. The conservative part of me wishes she have higher reguard for herself but the part of me that deals with facts sees that what she is doing is not illegal and that it has nothing to do with what happened to her. Someone clearly didn’t understand the word no and broke the law.

@plethora then please, take some time to answer my question if you are interested in discussion.

I saw a clip of Obama yesterday where he said along the lines of I know how it works, if a Repunlican smiles at me, let alone agrees with me the party base goes crazy. And, if the Republicans can completely contradict me, and hate me, they raise a bunch of money. They are in a tough spot. That sounds about right to me. It almost doesn’t matter what Obama says regarding the Republican base right now, so I don’t see why the Republicans care, except that maybe they raise money when they get the chance to take a piece of what he says and twist it.

@plethora, how do you define “full-fledged” news conferences?

How many “full-fledged” news conferences have other presidents given?

Now you’re just moving the goalposts. Give me a break. Just admit you were repeating an ideological attack meme without checking its veracity. It happens to the best of us.

This was so much more clever a post than I had first thought. It was really a lemming detector, and not meant to stimulate discourse at all! You sure got me! Boy, is my face red!

@plethora

1) Just how much of a literalist reading do you want? The question indicates that you think Obama hasn’t communicated enough with the people and so people respond to that sentiment. Now, you point out that you were only referring to “full fledged” press conferences and that people here ignored that. So all of a sudden, they are all very liberal? Maybe you need to communicate more clearly.

2) Why in the world do you have a bias towards full fledged press conferences? They are as much a joke as the stupid debates we force candidates to go through. It allows supporters to ask soft questions that are easy to answer and detractors to try to trip up the interviewee. It only adds to the circus of politics. A focused press conference on a particular subject allows the President to actually get a little deeper into a topic. And one-on-one interviews allow some actual back and forth and discussion instead of getting sound bytes.

The only problem with having focused, scheduled one-on-one interviews is that the President can avoid topics that he’d rather not talk about but which the people deserve to hear about. So that is probably a good argument for an occasional full fledged press conference. Maybe Obama is doing them a little too rarely, but thats hardly a scathing criticisms given his communication with the people in general (see statistics above).

3) Yes, peopl who are heavy internet users are probably more liberal than average. Woo hoo. However, if you want to change minds on Obama (which I’d be happy to have you do, we all need our views questioned) its best if you respond to what people actually say instead of falling back on just calling them liberal.

Obama is a very busy man. He is working hard to change the U.S.A. and he is doing a good job at quickly turning our nation into his liberal dream. Even though our nation is broke and far into debt, Obama and our liberal Congress are busy spending massively on healthcare and on an ever growing Federal Government. What are Obama’s intensions?
I’m definitely no political expert but to me it seems like Obama is purposely trying to break the back of capitalism. When capitalism has been finally crushed, then Obama and the colossal Federal Government will completely take over all the banks and big businesses.
The future is what is most frightening to me. It is uncertain of course but I it seems like our country is going down a road that will eventually lead into a country very much like the way China is managed. What a nightmare. I hope that I’m long gone by then. God bless the U.S.A.!

@gondwanalon I think you are being paranoid. I know many a liberal and not one wants the government to take over all business and industry. The TARPS and bank buy outs started under Bush, wy do you not question his intention? I am not happy about Bush or Obama seemingly ignoring the deficit, I am a big time, I want a balanced budget type of person. I live it in my life (no debt, and money for a rainy day) and I would like my government to be the same. But, I do not feel Obama and the liberals want our country to be China, this is an overblown misconception that is used by the right to keep their voters loyal and coming to the polls.

I understand your fear. I was very fearful when Bush was elected that my country would head down a path that I was not happy about and in some ways I felt unAmerican. I think I was right to some extent, but I hold out hope we can steer back onto what I believe is the right path, and I don’t believe Bush was a bad, sinister person. I believe he was doing what he believed was right, even though I disagree with a lot of it.

There are economists (and decent, non-flaky ones who accurately predicted the housing bubble when the ones preferred by the Right did not) that are saying that a recession is not the time to try to balance the budget. Look what it did to the Great Depression – it made it much worse and much longer. Perhaps we’re not carrying enough debt. Debt can be paid off when people are back to work, instead of trying to find jobs.

Obama is, frankly, a centrist. If he looks fringe-left to anyone, it’s because that person is standing so far to the right of center as to be fringe themselves. He doesn’t want to break the back of Capitalism or anything else out of the Right’s fearmonger playbook.

I know that I’ve been listening to the likes of Limbaugh d Beck too much. I also listen Air America and just wonder where the real truth lies. HA!

Any way, Bush was far more than a disappointment, he was a disaster and an embarrassment.

I’ve never heard of Obama being referred to as a centrist. I think that he tries to present a facade of a centrist. But I simply don’t trust him or any politician. Watch what they do not what they say.

@gondwanalon:

Politico: Dems grouse as Obama tacks to center

Politico again: Obama’s steady centrism.

Newsweek: The Trouble with Barack (“Obama is essentially a centrist.”)

Kiplinger: Obama as a centrist. Really.

Fox News: Obama’s Centrist Approach Angers Fans, Pleases Critics

HA! laureth (18293) is right! Even heavily slanted news media such as left leaning Politico/Newsweek, and right leaning Fox News agree on something for a change. Which is Obama is partially in mid-field some times. Too bad he isn’t consistent in this aspect. Any reasonable observer can see that Obama is mostly out there running around in left field somewhere. In order to keep scoring points Obama must venture into right field now and then. But I’ll settle for the 50 yard line if he would only stay there. Hit it!

@gondwanalon – The funny thing is that my leftie friends think that Obama’s a right-leaner in blue-state clothing. I guess what doppler shift the man has depends upon where the viewer is standing, eh?

@laureth To be pedantic (and totally useless, I know) a doppler shift happens based on your movement, not where you are standing.

Fair enough. The further the observer moves to the right or left, the more Obama’s doppler shift will look more blue or red. ;)

Or, as Obama moves around (which is relative moment to everyone else).

In any event, its not a serious point :)

That’s the thing about centrists. They have some stuff from both sides, as it makes sense to them.